Claire McConaughy

Artist Statement

My work as an artist is informed by my domestic life with all of its connections to people, memory, and places. These paintings are genre scenes of intimate everyday moments. Genre scenes are by their nature fleeting and therefore show their awareness of the displacement that will occur in the next moment. Capturing these straightforward, honest snapshots is only part of what I aim to achieve. Like snapshots, they are records, but unlike quick snapshots they are layered with “painting time” that is a much slower accumulation of meaning, mystery and interaction between the painting and myself. Often the subject is seen from behind, eyes rarely meeting the viewer’s or the subject’s face obscured or turned. The subject is completely available for scrutiny. The way I paint is based in the act of tenacious observation.